After a long wait, a legislation aimed at protecting whistleblowers will be taken up by the Cabinet on Thursday. The bill has provisions to prevent victimization or disciplinary action against those who expose corruption in government. The proposed law is expected to encourage disclosure of information in public interest and will cover central, state and public sector employees. According to the bill, if a person making a disclosure is victimized...

Hit by allegations of corruption in the Commonwealth Games, the government today promised to take action against those found guilty even as another venue was inaugurated with a leaking roof. Union urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy was in damage-control mode over the Central Vigilance Commission's report on widescale corruption in Games' construction projects. "CVC has come out with preliminary remarks on the alleged irregularities in the construction of Commonwealth...

Almost a week after RTI activist Amit Jethava was shot dead near the Gujarat High Court, the minister-in-charge of RTI Act on Thursday denied any move to frame a law to protect RTI activists while the Central Information Commissioner said it was the “job of the police” to protect them. “There is no proposal before the government to frame a specific law to protect RTI activists,” Minister of State for Public...

The government on Thursday said a Bill to protect whistleblowers is in the final stage of formulation. “A Bill to protect the persons who make public interest disclosures is nearing finalisation,” Minister of State for Public Grievances Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. “There have been reports in the media and government has been informed about the increased threat to RTI (Right to Information) activists. Such incidents...

The Central Vigilance Commission is examining all construction work related to Commonwealth Games being undertaken by civic agencies following complaints of alleged large-scale corruption. The anti-corruption watchdog has also decided to formulate vigilance guidelines to check Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects. "Apart from expeditiously attending to complaints relating to the Games, the Commission, through its Chief Technical Examiner's Wing, is keeping a close watch on all the contracts and works undertaken...